The Royal We: Rewriting the Past

The first and most important step in writing The Royal We was obviously creating our central characters — fleshing out Nick, Bex, Lacey, Freddie, the friends and enemies they make. But we also needed a Queen. And she needed a family. So we needed to change history.

We’re frequently asked why, in the face of that obstacle, we didn’t just set the book in a country we invented out of whole cloth. For whatever reason, that never crossed our minds. The Royal We needed to feel grounded, because at its crux is the push and pull between an ordinary person and her extraordinary situation, and the potential sacrifice of one for the other. Her world therefore had to be relatable. Familiar. She had to be walking the streets of a real city so that the reader could truly put themselves in her shoes, and empathize with the divide between where she came from and where she went. But more importantly, a huge part of the story is Nick’s destiny. He is going to be king. And that reality, and the burden it puts on him, has so much more heft when the reader brings into the story a knowledge of what that means. Socially, politically, even just terrestrially. In the wonderful FitzOsbournes trilogy by Michelle Cooper, about the family that rules the fictional island of Montmaray off the coast of the UK, an imaginary country works because it’s not REALLY about that; at its core the trilogy is the story of a close-knit group of kids who grew up in bizarre isolation, and then had the sanctity of their unit threatened by the various dangers of World War II (and in fact, even that trilogy eventually forsakes Montmaray for England’s richer tapestry). Those books explore what happens when the world encroaches on you. The Royal We is the reverse, a story about a girl who encroaches on a world. Bex falls in love with a man who just so happens to have another marriage in the hopper — to his birthplace — that is bigger than anyone could possibly imagine. She chose England the first time with just the weight of her own desires and expectations at stake, but when she chose it again, it was a heavier decision. Using the UK in this situation gives readers an innate understanding of just how big a deal, and how explosive a pressure-cooker, that choice is.

Besides, let’s face it, setting the book in London gave us ample and irresistible chances to color the story with actual landmarks, traditions, and references to Henry VIII. Sold.

Creating our fictional Lyons dynasty, however, wasn’t as simple as just pulling Queen Eleanor’s name out of a hat and then making up the rest as we went. That’s a quick way to make a tangled web that won’t unravel. Offhand mentions of random royal relatives would start to step on each other, and risked disconnecting readers from a world where the pieces not only didn’t seem to fit together, but felt like they were pulled from different puzzles. What we had to do was, in essence, our homework. Like using scratch paper in math to work out a problem so that you can fill in the right answer on your exam, even if your teacher never gets to marvel at how you arrived there. We knew we wouldn’t be able to show our work via a full and lengthy Lyons timeline at the front of The Royal We — in our first draft, our attempt accounted for a full five Microsoft Word pages, so we had to slice-and-dice — but in order to thread our narrative with allusions to Eleanor’s ancestors, every reference had to ring accurate. If it didn’t feel true to us, it wouldn’t feel true to the reader.

The trick became tweaking events in the UK’s actual monarchical timeline so that it afforded us exactly the right amount of space. Cut it too close, and we’d cross streams with the Windsors of today; erase too much, and we’d wipe out crucial elements of what makes the UK what it is. We wanted some room to create our own rulers with big romances and zany deaths, but we had to do it without abundance of real Edwards and Georges in the way — yet also without losing too much of Britain’s fabric, or London’s architecture and landmarks. Delete Victoria, and it deletes Albert, which zaps out Royal Albert Hall and the gargantuan golden monument to him that she built after he died. Poof: one grand romantic gesture stricken from the record. It’s a domino effect. Besides, we were already contending with minutiae like the fact that our characters would refer to Queen Elizabeth I as simply Queen Elizabeth, because the regnal number isn’t added until there is more than one, and of course, in The Royal We there is no QEII. In short, there was only so much of the past we could twist without making pretzels of our brains and of British history.

In the end, we chose to keep Queen Victoria, but make two critical changes to her immediate successor(s) — we prematurely eliminated a son, and revived a grandson — so that it created a completely fresh crew (and eventually gave her the regnal number we took away from Elizabeth I).

Oh, and a word about names: We strove to christen our characters in a way that was at least somewhat in keeping with history — we threaded in connections for a few where we needed them, like as middle names, or Frederick and Richard being actual ducal family names for the one we revived for Queen Victoria II’s husband — but which didn’t step on the names of current royals or on any of the kings we eradicated. So, for example, we couldn’t invent a new George, because he’d have been George V, which easily would be confused with the ACTUAL George V that we had eliminated from the timeline. Ditto making a new fictional Edward VIII. Further, we couldn’t invent a Charles, because he’d have been King Charles III in our book, which is the same number the real Charles may be someday (unless he styles himself George VIII or something) and that would create similar confusion in the future. And William and Harry/Henry we stayed away from for obvious reasons, although with William, it’s also the same monarchical issue of not wanting to make up a William V that would someday cross streams with the eventual William V (if that’s what he chooses for himself). Finally, we realized hearing the names of ANY of the present-day crew would take you out of the book because it’s so hard not to picture their faces, so we struck Edward, George, Andrew, Anne, Elizabeth, and Philip from the list. Fun fact: Prince Edwin was originally named Prince George, until we read through the first draft and realized that every time we saw his name we pictured the new little moppet and his CHEEKS.

Here’s our timeline, created with help from my research star of a sister, including children, spouses, deaths, and other historical notes explaining certain decisions we made. There are NO book spoilers herein, but there are in the comments, so beware if you’ve not read the entire book.

Death: Assassinated in Belgium by a protester of the Boer War, worsening relations between the United Kingdom and the continent

Notes: In real life, Albert Edward, a.k.a. Bertie, survived the assassination attempt and became Edward VII. This was our first big reversal of real events.

HOUSE OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA: 1901-1916

King Albert: 1900-1916

Spouse: Georgina Lyons-Bowes (name chosen as a loving nod to the real Queen Mum, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon), 1885. Albert falls ill with typhoid in early 1884, which freaks out the royal family because that’s what actually did kill Victoria’s Albert. Georgina is instrumental in nursing him back to health, and they fall in love. It causes a minor scandal because Georgina is not the high-profile foreign princess the world would’ve expected for the heir, but the royal family and nation are so grateful for her aid in Albert’s survival — and, her family is sufficiently upmarket — that the furor quickly subsides.

Historical note: In real life, Albert Victor actually died young of pneumonia, and a devastated Victoria honored him with a large and loving tomb at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor (when we passed it on our tour, I said to Jess, “See this? NONE of it exists in our book”). He was engaged at the time to Mary of Teck, who — while recovering from their mutual grief, in what was by all accounts a genuine accident of affection — fell in love with Albert’s brother George and married him instead. George also filled Albert’s role as heir, later becoming George V, a.k.a. Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather.

Dynastic change: Having nursed Albert so successfully, Georgina as Queen Consort becomes a prominent advocate for health causes, hospitals, nurses, etc., and often visits the sick and wounded – which endears her to the people and naturally leads to her brave and unprecedented journey abroad to comfort the WWI wounded. En route, she is killed, another casualty of war. With a heavy wariness of the Germans already fomenting on his home shores, Albert harnesses his grief and that of his country and changes the dynastic name from his grandfather’s Saxe-Coburg and Gotha — thus distancing Britain’s rulers from their German roots — to Lyons. It’s both in honor of his late wife, and a homophone with the three lions that feature twice on the Royal Standard flag (and once on the England football jerseys).

Death: His broken heart drove him mad, and eventually to his grave.

Notes: In real life, George V changed the dynastic name to Windsor (and stripped 15 German relatives of their British titles) purely for political reasons. Per Wikipedia: “High anti-German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during World War I reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. In the same year, on 15 March, King George’s first cousin, Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The King and his family were finally convinced to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions.” Hilariously, Wikipedia also says, “In reference to Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, German Emperor Wilhelm II remarked jokingly that he planned to see The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.” Oh, Wilhelm, you joker.

HOUSE OF LYONS: 1916-present

King Albert: 1916-1917

King Arthur I: 1917-1919

Spouse: None

Engagement(s): Grand Duchess Olga of Russia (b. 1895). Arthur drags his feet on making it official because he is in love with his best friend’s wife. Then World War I does the rest of the work, making the union logistically impossible for a time. The engagement stands because it’s considered such a desirable match, but then Olga is assassinated in 1918 before she can get to London to say her vows. Thus, Arthur is free to marinate in his romantic depression.

Children: None

Death: Pneumonia, on the official record, but per the Lyons lore it was booze and unrequited passion.

Historical notes: Olga of Russia, oldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, is a real person, and that is her real death. We just borrowed her for this purpose.

Queen Victoria II: 1919-1957

Succeeds her childless brother Arthur at age 33

Spouse: Married in 1907 to Frederick Sackville-Germain, 8th Duke of Dorset

Notes: First owner of the Lyons Emerald, given to her by her father on the occasion of her wedding. … In reality, the Dukedom of Dorset became extinct in 1843 when the 5th Duke, Charles Sackville-Germain, died unmarried and childless. Traditional Dorset/Sackville family names actually and helpfully do include Frederick and Richard.

King Arthur II: 1957-1958

Spouse: Princess Ingeborg Christina of Denmark (born 1911).

Children: None

Death: falls off his horse.

Notes: Ingeborg is a fictional daughter of King Christian X — himself the brother of the Norwegian king, so it’d be considered a suitable match for an heir.

Notes: The Dukedom of Cleveland actually became extinct in 1891 when the 4th Duke died with no (legitimate) heirs. We chose a homegrown consort, so to speak, because rumor has it the Brits actually hoped for the same with Queen Elizabeth II — and picking someone from Greece would’ve been too close to reality, Russia too controversial, and Scandinavia, too close to Eleanor’s lineage.

This is super-cool. So, was Albert the son of Albert Edward, then? That wasn’t clear. I love the Somers tie. 🙂

I wanted to say something about the book, but I couldn’t find the right place before. Maybe this is it. It’s a really fun book, and I enjoyed it. I was impressed with the amount of insight you seemed to have on living such a public life … it’s hard to believe that it would truly be anything but as you describe it.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:

The most incredible part for me, though, was the relation of Mr. Porter’s death. I know that that must have been an incredibly personal thing to write, and I just wanted you to know that it was extremely moving and I could feel the personal weight of it. Very effective writing. I’m grateful for it, and at the same time, I’m sorry that you knew so well how to convey those feelings. I guess I hope that maybe it was comforting for you to put that all down.

All the best — I’m a longtime fan. You ladies keep writing, and I’ll keep reading. 🙂

In what way is the numbering uncertain? Honest question! Maybe we can explain it. Also, I think for our purposes we’re okay with Richard. Because Richard IV, in this world, was not ever expected to be Richard IV. He wasn’t the heir, he was the heir’s brother. Given that, I buy that they might’ve taken the chance on the name. And then Eleanor named her heir Richard in honor of her father.

Soph

OMG Heather responded to me! Uncertain because calling him Richard IV implies that Richard, Duke of York, was killed before his brother, Edward V. Calling him Richard V then acknowledges that both boys (both Kings of England) were killed. All in all, a very sticky situation that I think they’d probably avoid altogether. I’ll buy that if it’s a second son, they might go with Richard. Honestly I didn’t notice it in the book, but now that you’ve so nicely walked us through the chronology, it stood out.

I see your point, but even with Edward V dying first and the crown technically passing to his brother before HE died, the young duke was never officially crowned Richard IV and history doesn’t generally acknowledge him as such. I think we can get away with skirting that piece of minutiae, even though I love minutiae.

Another problem we had was — and I could cover this in the piece, actually [note: ADDED IT] — that we strove to use names that were at least somewhat in keeping with history, but without stepping too much on the names of CURRENT royals or on any of the kings we eradicated. So, we couldn’t make a new George V, because it would confuse things with the ACTUAL George V; ditto making an Edward VIII. And hearing the names of the current crew would take you out of the book because it’s so hard not to picture their faces, so we struck Edward, George, Andrew, and Philip from the list. Prince Edwin was originally named Prince George until we read through the first draft and realized how freaking CONFUSING that was with the new little moppet. And we couldn’t invent a Charles, because he’d have been King Charles III in our book, which is the same number the REAL Charles may be someday (unless he styles himself George VIII or something) and that’d be Confusing In The Future. And then William and Harry/Henry we stayed away from for obvious reasons — well, there is a baby Henry, but it isn’t distracting I don’t think — although with William, it’s also the same monarchical issue of not wanting a William V that would then confuse things with the eventual William V (if that’s what he chooses for himself).

And we couldn’t take history back and make our timeline begin with the two princes secretly being rescued and taken to France and then returning to claim their birthright, because that would eradicate Queen Victoria, which we specifically didn’t want to do. So we picked Richard, even knowing that history views RIII as such a rotter, because we decided Vic II was TAKING BACK THE NAME and was just burning it off on her second son. (That’s also why we made her husband a Sackville-Germain. It’s a real ducal family that we revived and extended long enough that the 8th duke could marry Queen Victoria II, and Frederick and Richard are Sackville-Germain family names, which is where and why Vic and Fred got Richard, and what eventually yielded our Freddie).

But yes, Vic II never figured it would be an issue, because she didn’t imagine Arthur was going to die falling off his horse, the dumbass.

However, I said it above and I’ll say it again: I love minutiae and I love that you brought this up. This is why we love Fug Nation.

Ottawa Amy

Great write-up, Heather, and some very smart thinking. I really liked your point about “tweaking events in the UK’s actual monarchical timeline so that it afforded us exactly the right amount of space.” I think that’s something that writers, to be good, have to do well. The reader should encounter some familiar figures and have some imaginative space to play “what if?” but not have to spend any time thinking, “hey, that can’t be right.” So props to you for doing it so well.

One nitpick. George V was QEII’s grandfather, not great-grandfather. (When she was a child, she apparently called him Grandpa England, which I think is very sweet.)

Count me among those who loved The Royal We. I look forward to another installment!

Jessica

I said this on Twitter but : this is amazing and I love it SO MUCH. I’d worked out much of the tree on my second read of the book but having all of the reasoning and tiny little tidbits is absolutely delightful. Creating new long-reigning queens is awesome.

Thank you for writing about this! I remember asking about this on Twitter, so this is great. I find royal family history and family trees fascinating, and apparently, that extends to fictional royal families. It’s wonderful to see how much thought and careful consideration went into this. I also love reading about things I didn’t think of myself, and that now totally make sense, like how one of the reasons you steered away from actual royal family names was to prevent future confusion when Charles, William, and George eventually ascend and choose their regnal names.

I hope you guys write about how you came up with the character names, like Lady Beatrix Larchmont-Kent-Smythe.

Jessica

A lot of the names, like Bea’s, we just made up because we liked them. Her name, we knew had to be insanely multi-barrelled and it was funnier if that was an almost-acronym, especially a rude one.

In further name trivia, we almost named Freddie “Peter,” which works on a man-child homage angle (Freddie does kind of refuse to grow up, or that’s how people think of him, anyway), but he just never FELT like a Peter to us, so that was very short lived. “Freddie” as a name is a bit of an homage to Lucy Honeychurch’s incorrigible and wonderful younger brother in A Room With a View, as well.

Ash

This genealogy is absolutely fascinating, and love that you girls did this kind of backstory. All of my favorite authors have really good world-building skills, and although you didn’t create the world, you certainly created a new family to run it. Cheers to you both! I’m so pleased the book is being so well-received, I’ve been recommending it! Also, it’s kind of intriguing – a death here, a life here, and look what could (and what might now) change in history. All the might-have-beens…

And WRT to Earl Porter – that was a beautiful homage, and I’ve been following you two for long enough to know where that bit of writing came from (or should I say, who). It stands up just fine as part of Bex’s story – indeed, it’s pivotal moment! – but knowing that it was truly written from the heart made it especially poignant. I cried for both Bex’s loss and yours.

Soluna

Thank you for this! I just finished The Royal We today (really!) I enjoyed it so much and loved coming here and seeing the thought that went into the alternate timeline. My given name is Elizabeth and I have a daughter named after Eleanor of Aquitaine so the name-switch was very amusing to me.

JenLWB

What a fascinating explanation! Loved the book too.
This led me to a wikipedia wormhole, the highlight of which was discovering that the real life Duke of Edinburgh (AKA Phil the Greek) is worshiped as a deity on some islands in Vanuatu…

Gareth

SaraNoH

Oh, this is lovely! I have been having a lot of fun trying to imagine how you altered things and whether any of the real peripheral royals might remain in Bex’s world. I did guess that you might have saved Prince Albert Victor from an early death, but couldn’t figure out what happened to Mary of Teck. Now that we know about Georgina Lyons-Bowes, I’m hoping that Prince George caught Mary on the rebound from his brother and they lived happily ever after. So, yeah, I’ve put a little too much thought into this, but the British royal family genealogy is kind of my fantasy baseball league.

Megan

Robyn V

I started (and finished lol) the book this weekend, and I was ever so pleased with it. 😉 It really makes you wonder what life is like for Kate and Pippa and the lot; what they’re really like behind closed doors, and if they ever just want to schlub off to the 7-11 in yoga pants and flip-flops to get a slushie or something. Thanks for a fun read – it will be my staff pick for August here at the library!

Jessica

Robyn V

No problem! If you ever find yourself wandering through Ohio stop by – St. Clairsville Public Library. I’ll roll out the red carpet – there’s probably one in the basement somewhere. We keep everything around here.

Saj

When I first read this post, it would not let me leave a comment, so I’m glad I revisited today! I am crazy about history and the fact that you can alter it ever so slightly and yet keep the integrity of a Royal Family we all know almost intact is AMAZING! I’m enjoying this book so much and love it when a place I’ve been to pops up and I’m right back there as in the middle of the action! This book and you two are GENIUS! Honestly, since I started reading all I’ve wanted to do is go back to England! Fug Nation should do a pilgrimage! 😉

hideous

Jessica

We’re not working on one at this very moment — we’re not working on any book right this second, actually — but we definitely wouldn’t be opposed to writing a sequel. The honest truth is that it depends on if our publisher wants one!

amylynniebug

I just finished the audio book (your reader was excellent, and I only wanted to correct maybe two pronunciations :0), I hope she sounded like the Bex in your heads, I can’t imagine anyone else having read it!) and had to come tell you how much I enjoyed “The Royal We”. I started listening to audiobooks during migraines, but this was SO good, I saved it for non-headache days so I could actually really listen! And I started over the second it was over. Well, after I thought about it for a while and listened to the bit that told me not to pirate it. :0) I promise, no pirate-y-ness.

I will look at the new genealogy again, I see one family connection – well, sort of two since Hanover is mentioned. Grace Kelly was my cousin and of course her eldest daughter is still/ sort of/ in name only/I just forgot where I was headed with this… oof! Once again with feeling! Grace Kelly (not mentioned until the dress) and her daughter Caroline, not mentioned exactly but who is HRH Caroline of Hanover.
I wrote myself a note to see, aside from Grace, if any American ladies did become Princesses. Off the top of my head there are a few, but they wed fellas in the Middle East.
Perfect time for a new American Princess, I love that so many Royals are finally getting to marry for love, so your book (among many other lovely things!) was really timely.